North Hills School District, Mark Madden announce scholarship named for Peggy Ann Madden

Listeners of Mark Madden’s popular afternoon drive sports talk show on 105.9 The X likely know how much of an influence his late mother, Peggy Ann Madden, has had on his successful professional life.

In addition to inspiring her son, Peggy Ann Madden also positively influenced hundreds and hundreds of students as a longtime English and speech teacher at North Hills High School and nationally recognized forensics coach. A pioneer in speech and debate, she led several North Hills forensics teams and speakers to multiple championships and is in the National Forensic League Hall of Fame.

Even after she retired from teaching in 1992, Peggy Ann Madden stayed on as the high school’s speech and debate coach for several years and remained active in the program until her death in 2006.

Now, Mark Madden and the North Hills School District have created a new scholarship program in her honor. North Hills seniors who plan to pursue a career in speech and debate, communications, journalism and/or English education, can apply for one of two $2,000 Peggy Ann Madden scholarships. Applicants must also be active participants in speech and debate, journalism, The Arrowhead, Norhian, NHTV or similar club, program or activity at North Hills High School.

The scholarship was announced on March 1, on what would have been Peggy Ann Madden’s 88th birthday.

“I wanted to do something to make sure her name was remembered to some level at North Hills. It was a passion of hers as far back as I can remember,” Mark Madden said. “She was such a quality speech and debate coach. When she took ill with a lung disorder and moved in with me for the last two-and-a-half years of her life, for a while students were coming to my house to work with her one on one. She was in it almost to her death.”

Mark Madden said he absorbed her intelligence and her speaking ability, and almost as important as anything — her charisma. She was a big sports fan, particularly hockey.

“She got me interested in hockey,” he said. “From a very young age, she and I had Penguins season tickets. It wasn’t until years later I understood that she taught not only at her job at North Hills, but night school and summer school so we’d have the money to do stuff like that. She was definitely a sports fan and she made me one as well.”

According to her son, Peggy Ann Madden wanted as many kids as possible to participate in speech and debate, so she would actively recruit students to take part.

“I think she understood how it could open doors in their lives,” Mark Madden. “I was at North Hills on (Feb. 27) and spoke to their journalism and broadcasting classes … I held up my phone and said, ‘ain’t no job here. Ain’t going to get a job staring at that phone. You’re going to have to learn to communicate with people.’ And that to me is the value of what she did. She taught kids to communicate with people and I think in today’s society with the obsession with the phone, that’s more important than ever.”

Mark Madden put up his own money to fund the scholarship program and said he received $500 individual contributions from ESPN sports anchor and hockey play-by-play announcer John Buccigross and former Penguins player and current member of their broadcast team, Colby Armstrong.

Mark Madden is deciding whether to put that money toward creating another scholarship or increasing the amount of the ones already in place.

Those interested in applying for the Peggy Ann Madden Scholarship can pick up a scholarship application in the North Hills High School Counseling Resource Center at the high school or download it online at https://nhsd.info/peggy-ann-madden-app-2023.